Royal Naval Biography/Sykes, Thomas
THOMAS SYKES, Esq.
[Commander.]
Obtained a lieutenant’s commission on the 14th Mar. 1799; and was first of the Tartar 32, commanded by Captain George Edmund Byron Bettesworth, when that gallant officer lost his life in action with a Danish flotilla, on the coast of Norway, May 15th, 1808. The particulars of the said engagement are given in the following extract of a letter from an officer on board the Tartar, dated May 20th, 1808:–
“We sailed from Leith on the 10th inst. to cruise off North Bergen and intercept a frigate, said to be in that harbour. We got on the coast on the i2th, but, from the very thick fogs, could not stand in till the 15th, when we made the islands to the westward of Bergen. On our hoisting Dutch colours, there came off twelve Norwegians in two boats, from whom we learnt that the frigate had sailed eight days before, for the East Indies, with three or four ships under her convoy. They took us through a most intricate rocky passage, till within five or six miles of Bergen, when they refused to pilot us any further. It being the captain’s intention to reach the town with the frigate and bring off the shipping, among which were three privateers, we anchored in the straits, with springs on our cables, and in the evening, the boats, with the captain, first and third lieutenants, and master, went up to the town, and would probably have cut out an East Indiaman lying under the battery, had not the guard-boat, which was without her, fell in with and fired on the launch, who returned the fire, wounding all their people severely, and took her: this alarmed the enemy on shore, who sounded their bugles, and manned the batteries; and we finding the ships lie within a chain, without which it would be difficult to get them, returned to the frigate, leaving the launch, commanded by Lieutenant Sykes, to watch the enemy. We immediately got the ship under weigh, but from the lightness of the wind, and intricacy of the passage, could not get near Bergen; and when about half way from our anchorage, in a narrow rocky strait, without a breath of wind, and a strong current; in this situation, we were attacked by a schooner and five gunboats, within half gun shot, lying under a rocky point, each mounting two 24-pounders, except the schooner, and manned with troops. They kept up a well-directed fire, hulling us in ten or eleven places, and cutting much our rigging and sails. One of their first shot killed our gallant captain, in the act of pointing a gun. The service has thus lost a most valuable commander, who had attached the whole of his officers and men to him, by the most kind and exemplary conduct. Although the force with which we were engaged was comparatively small, yet when it is known that we were at this time drifting towards the enemy, nearly end on, no wind, a narrow passage full of rocks, on which we were driving, with no anchorage, under heights manned by their troops, no guns to bear on the boats, and a crew newly impressed, most of whom had never been engaged, it must be confessed to have been a situation in which nothing but the greatest exertions on the part of Lieutenant Herbert Caiger (then commanding), and the rest of the officers, could relieve her. We at length brought our broadside to bear on them; one vessel was sunk, and the rest much shattered. They continued the attack for an hour and a half, and were re-manned, by small boats, during it: at length, a light air sprung up; we wore and stood to> wards the enemy, getting our bow guns forward, which bore on them, and compelled them to bear up, and row under the batteries of Bergen, where we found it would not be advisable to follow, from the general alarm that had been raised. We now obliged the natives on board to attempt a passage with the ship to the northward, in prosecuting which, we fell in with our launch and picked her up. We passed many difficult passages, through which we boomed the frgate off with spars, and towed her; and, at three, cleared the islands, and stood out for sea. We have preserved the body of our heroic captain, and shall, if possible, also that of Mr. H. Fitzhugh (midshipman), a fine promising youth, who fell at the time the captain did. They are the only killed; we have two men severely wounded, and several slightly. Most of our shot holes are between wind and water.”
On the 2d June 1809, Captain Bettesworth’s successor addressed an official letter to Rear-Admiral Sir R. G. Keates, of which the following is a copy:–
“Sir,– I have the honor to acquaint you, that on the 15th ult. I chased on shore, near Felixberg, on the coast of Courland, a Danish sloop privateer, of four guns, two of them 12-pounders, on slides, and two long 4-pounders; the crew, 24 in number, landing with their muskets, and being joined by some of the country people, posted themselves behind the sand-hills near the beach. The vessel appearing calculated to do much mischief to the trade, I sent the boats of this ship, under the command of Lieutenants Sykes and Parker, with orders either to bring her off or to destroy her, the former of which they effected with considerable address and activity, and without loss, very soon getting the vessel’s guns to bear upon the beach.
“Before the Danes abandoned her, they placed a lighted candle in a 12-pounder cartridge of gunpowder, in the magazine, where there was some hundred weight beside, which was happily discovered by one of our men, who immediately grasped it in his hand, and extinguished it, when it had burnt down within half an inch of the powder; another minute would, in all probability, have been the destruction of every man on board and alongside the vessel; – a dishonorable mode of warfare, necessary to be known, to be properly guarded against. I have the honor to be, &c.
(Signed)“Joseph Baker, Captain.”